DeWine mask order covers more than half of Ohioans

OHIO — Pointing to an updated Public Health Advisory Alert Map that has become more red than ever, Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday the coronavirus continues to spread in larger numbers statewide.

The counties on the map in red at Level 3, carrying with it a mask mandate, went from 12 to 19 on the basis of newly acquired data from county health departments.

Montgomery and Butler counties remain at Level 3. People in the other counties from southern, central and northeastern Ohio that are new to the list will come under Ohio’s mask order for the first time.

“The order will be that at six o’clock tomorrow night, as we have done in the past, those counties will have a mandatory mask order,” DeWine said.

He added that once all 19 counties are at Level 3 that 60 percent of Ohio’s population will be required to wear a mask while they are in public.

DeWine has faced a flood of second-guessing after his Wednesday night special broadcast in which he stopped short of making the mask order mandatory statewide and instead called upon people to voluntarily wear a mask.

At his Thursday briefing, DeWine kept open the possibility that he might make it statewide and issue other new restrictions, if needed.

“As Governor of the state of Ohio, I will do what I have to do to protect the people of Ohio and that is what I’m going to do,” DeWine said.

Cox Media Group